The Bulgarian company "Adval" JSC and the German Ed. Z?blin AG held the grand opening of the third largest tunnel in Germany, the "Blessberg" tunnel, on Thursday.
The ceremony was attended by the German Minister of Transport Dr. Peter Rahmsauer, the Prime Minister of Thuringia Christine Lieberknecht, the Chairman of the Board of the German Railways (Deutsche Bahn AG) Dr. Ruediger Grube, the transport minister of Thuringia Christian Carius, the SPD deputy Sabine Doht and the Regional...

Bulgaria has witnessed a 1.2% monthly increase in the production of solid fuels to 2885 000 tons in March 2011, while the production of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has gone up by 66.7% to 10 000 tons in the same period.
According to data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI), in March 2011 the production of unleaded gasoline goes up by 112.5% to 153 000 tons on the month, diesel fuel adds 97.8% to 184 000 tons and natural gas rises by 28.1% to 41 million standard cubic meters.
The...

The European Commission will allow a 2-year extension of the construction of the bridge across the Danube set to connect Bulgaria's Vidin and Romania's Calafat.
The so-called Danube Bridge 2, financed by EU's Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (ISPA), was set to be completed by October 2010, but has been delayed due to technical...

Bulgaria's Black Sea resorts expect an even higher number of Romanian tourists in summer 2011, according to hotel managers.
"Figures are already indicating that there will be a substantial growth in the number of Romanian tourists. It is another matter if this boom can compensate for the decrease in the number of tourists from other destinations," Ivan Portnih, CEO of Grand Hotel Varna, is quoted as saying by the Cherno More newspaper.
"The record number of Romanian tourists has its...

The eventual exit of a member state from the euro zone is probably inevitable, billionaire investor George Soros has said, but declined to name the country.
"There was no arrangement for any country leaving the euro, which in the current circumstances is probably inevitable," he was quoted as saying at a panel discussion in Vienna.
Soros pointed out that the euro had a basic flaw from the start in that the currency was not backed by political union or a joint treasury.
"The euro had no...

Radisson Blu in Sofia will soon be featuring a renovated commercial zone, announced Colliers International, consultant of the project.
The hotel will offer a variety of prestigious tenants and entertainment opportunities.
The new commercial area will have a total GLA of 1,100 sqm and will offer accessories and health and beauty shops, an expanded Casino, and the much loved Tequila night club, which is to re-open in Radisson Blu.
"I am glad that Colliers secured a variety of prestigious...

The Black Sea could turn in a worldwide attraction for underwater tourism if countries cash on the story that the Biblical Deluge happened in the area, according to Bulgarian archaeologist Petko Dimitrov.
According to Prof. Dimitrov, who is the director of the Underwater Archaeology unit of the Oceanology Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, there are enough findings in the Black Sea's aquatorium to make it an attractive destination for that kind of tourism.
"If the hypothesis...

Bulgaria and China signed a memorandum on mutual cooperation in the sphere of Information Technologies Friday.
Broadband technologies, e-government, joint research projects and support for business development are among the areas covered by the memorandum, which was signed by the Bulgarian Minister of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications Ivaylo Moskovski, and the Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technologies, Miao Wei, China Daily reports.
Information...

The Black Sea city of Burgas will feature Bulgaria's first "open-air mall" as the shopping mall project dating back to 2008-2009 will be unfrozen.
"The Strand" shopping mall in Burgas is designed as an open air mall with stores and restaurants arranged around a racetrack 'High Street'.
The EUR 40 M project got its construction permit in 2009 but its construction was put off. Its ground-breaking ceremony is now scheduled for June 29, 2011, announced on Friday ZBS, one of the investors, as...

Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov and Economy and Energy Minister, Traicho Traikov, are opening Saturday the first stage of the building of a new electric power substation on the Black Sea coast.
The "Helios" substation is being built at the largest Bulgarian summer resort – "Sunny Beach."
The new facility is owned by the National Electric Company, NEK, and its CEO, Mihail Andonov, will also take part in the ceremony.
The construction is done under a public procurement order....

More and more Romanian citizens decide to register their businesses and pay their taxes in the Bulgarian Danube city of Ruse, according to the Balkan country's national revenue agency.
The government in Sofia has been boasting that Romanian companies are moving in droves to neighboring Bulgaria attracted by lower taxes, which the government has maintained at pre-recession levels unlike Romania or Greece.
Last week, it turned out that the richest citizen of Ruse, who earned BGN 3.12 M in...

The Bulgarian government is no longer trying to make the future gas interconnection between Bulgaria and Turkey a section of the EU-sponsored gas transit pipeline Nabucco, Economy Minister Traikov announced.
The gas pipeline connecting the natural gas networks of Bulgaria and Turkey could be ready by 2014, and through which Bulgaria could be receiving up to 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, Bulgaria's Minister of Economy, Energy, and Tourism Traicho Traikov told the Members of...

The privatization of the Bulgarian state-owned cigarette produce Bulgartabac will be successful thanks to the privatization criteria, according to Economy Minister Traicho Traikov.
Answering MPs' questions in Parliament Friday, Traikov defended the way the government is going about the sale of Bulgartabac Holding in spite of criticism by the opposition Socialists that it is unclear who will be responsible for the tobacco-growing and cigarette-making sector in Bulgaria once the state-owned...

Romanian and Bulgarian subsidiaries of Greek banks have been funding their parent companies in the local market, analysts at Nomura Research Institute have observed.
According to Joseph Cotterill from the Financial Times there are a lot of ironies here.
"Romanian and Bulgarian subsidiaries of Greek banks are pretty well capitalized but largely that's because their parent institutions supported their subsidiaries under the original Vienna Initiative, in 2009," he writes in an article in...

Bulgaria expects a 10% growth in tourists, according to Deputy Economy Minister in charge of tourism Ivaylo Marinov.
In an interview for the morning broadcast of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT), he predicted a stronger summer season than last year's because of the massive advertising campaign financed with EU funds.
According to the deputy minister, the season will be successful for the hoteliers offering good accommodation and staff.
A working group is about to be set up to...

The highly controversial project for the construction of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline has been delayed further as the Bulgarian Environment Ministry has returned the company’s environmental assessment report for the second time.
Bulgaria’s Environment Minister Nona Karadzhova announced Monday morning on BNT that the Ministry has once again refused to accept the report of the project company Trans-Balkan Pipeline (TPP) on the construction of the troubled Bulgarian-Greek-Russian oil...

Bulbrokers, a local financial and investment company, has been picked to broker Bulgaria's 33% stake sale in Austria's EVN AG unit, while Central Cooperative Bank - the same government's share in Prague-based CEZ AS unit.
This was announced on Wednesday by Bulgaria's sale body, the Privatization Agency, which selected the two providers of brokerage services in a competition, which assigned the greatest significance to the offered commission after a sale and the turnover of deals inked by the...

Bulgaria's real estate market is ranked sixth in the world by the property price drop in the first quarter of 2011, according to a study of the global property services and research company Knight Frank.
To follow the price trend in Bulgaria, Knight Frank have used data of the Bulgarian National Statistics Institute, NSI, showing that residential properties' prices went down nearly 6% in the first quarter of 2011, compared to the same period of 2010. On quarterly basis, the decrease is 2.3%...

Bulgaria's Council of Ministers has approved a report on the implementation of the Action Plan for Reducing Administrative Burden by 20% by end-2012.
The set of measures was agreed upon in end-April 2010 and the report spans the period from its introduction until March 2011.
The Action Plan envisages a total of 135 measures divided into categories according to the five-component model for alleviating red tape: inter-institutional information exchange (data collecting from other state...

Bulgarian telecoms operator Vivacom plans to invest BGN 600 M over the next three years to develop its fibre-optic internet network and improve its services, the company said.
Currently the company is the largest ISP in Bulgaria with over 350 thousand ADSL subscribers. According to the company CEO Bernard Moscheni that gives the company a market share of 26-27% in the country.
Vivacom has opted for Fiber to the building technology, or FTTb, which means that the company chose the active...